often angry. always gen x.

connecticut supreme court overturns ban on same-sex marriage

Take note, California! A vote for Prop 8 would be on the wrong side of history and civil rights. No on 8!

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, reversing a lower court decision that had concluded that the civil unions legalized in the state three years ago offered the same rights and benefits as marriage.

With the 4-to-3 ruling, Connecticut becomes the third state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. California legalized gay marriage in May 2008, and Massachusetts in 2004.

. . . In his majority opinion, Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote that the court found that the “segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm,” in light of “the history of pernicious discrimination faced by gay men and lesbians, and because the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody.”

The court also found that “the state had failed to provide sufficient justification for excluding same-sex couples from the institution of marriage.”

. . . In a statement issued on Friday, Governor Rell said she would uphold the ruling, even though she disagreed with it.

“The Supreme Court has spoken,” the governor said. “I do not believe their voice reflects the majority of the people of Connecticut. However, I am also firmly convinced that attempts to reverse this decision, either legislatively or by amending the state Constitution, will not meet with success. I will therefore abide by the ruling.”

Connecticut was the first state to recognize same-sex unions through an act of its legislature, rather than a court order. Still, the judges ruled, that action fell short in giving the state’s gay and lesbian couples the equal protection under the law guaranteed by the state’s Constitution.

“There is no doubt that civil unions enjoy a lesser status in our society than marriage,” the court found.

“Ultimately,” the opinion continued, “the message of the civil unions law is that what same-sex couples have is not as important or as significant as real marriage.”

For those who spout nonsense about such rulings as going against the “will of the people”–mob rule is not the law of the land. It is the role of judges to uphold Constitutional rights. If we had to wait on majority rule for laws to pass, Jim Crow and a whole host of other discriminatory laws would still be on the books. Thank god we have courts, or this country would be even more boorish than it currently is.